


Under the Sea

by buckyismymainman



Series: Avengers Oneshots [43]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Mentions of Mermaids being tortured and killed but nothing overly graphic, Mermaid!Reader, Mermaids, Thoughts of wanting to die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27703442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckyismymainman/pseuds/buckyismymainman
Summary: You’re a mermaid that has been captured by HYDRA.  Loki and the Avengers find you but not before you witness your entire family and friends murdered by the terrorist group.  Soon you find a family with the Avengers, but will you be able to stay?
Relationships: Loki/Reader
Series: Avengers Oneshots [43]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1314041
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63





	Under the Sea

The glass of the tank you were being held in was thick and a little cloudy. You weren’t sure how long you had been here but your tale hurt and you were weak. Your captors fed you the bare minimum and their constant experiments had left you despondent and unresponsive. It had been maybe two weeks since your sister and friend had been killed by them. They had gotten all they could out of her.

You had screamed and banged against the wall of your tank as they dumped her onto the dirty floor and you watched her writhe in pain as they injected her with some type of liquid. One of the men had come to stand in front of your tank, you could tell he was grinning, clearly enjoying this. They left her on the floor for you to look at for several hours before dragging her away.

You weren’t sure when they would come for you, when they would decide that you were no longer useful to them. Maybe they were trying to play mind games with you and see how well you responded to the stress. There were the low moments when you wished that they would just end you already, you wanted this to be over, to enter whatever afterlife awaited you.

But that day wasn’t coming anytime soon because a new man approached your tank, “I need backup in lab three.” You perked up at the different accent to his voice, you had never heard an accent like his before. “You all need to see this.”

A second later four other people joined the first man. “Lift the lid,” one of the new men said, through the glass you could tell that he had blonde hair and was broad shouldered.

The first man, he had longish black hair, lifted the lid of your tank and you pressed yourself closer to the glass of the tank. He peered down at you and his eyes met yours, he saw how terrified you were. “She’s frightened. Wanda,” he turned away from you and waved a woman over. “Can you do anything?”

You were shaking your head, “Please no more.” The group seemed startled to hear you speak. It was hoarse sounding, you hadn’t spoken in so long. “No more.”

The woman, Wanda, held up her hands, “We’re not going to hurt you, please just let us help you.”

You whimpered but you were trapped in the tank. There were too many of them and you were too weak to do anything to fight them off if you wanted. The woman’s hands seemed to glow red and then you were blacking out.

When you came too it was dark outside, that took a moment to register. That and the wide open space that you had. You were staring up at the night sky which you hadn’t been able to see for months. You could see the familiar comforting presence of the constellations. Looking around the bottom of wherever you were you could tell that you were not back in the sea, but that you were no longer in a tiny tank.

Carefully you pushed off the bottom of the pool and broke the surface to get a better look at your new surroundings. The building that you were in was made out of glass and beyond you could see wide open spaces of green grass and a few trees. Wherever you were it was no longer that dingy laboratory.

“You’re with the Avengers,” the voice of the man from earlier spoke. You spun around and saw him leaning against the wall. You ducked below the water a little bit, but he held up his hands. “You don’t have to be afraid, I won’t hurt you.”

Narrowing your eyes you came back up and said, “Humans were the ones that captured me, how can I trust you?”

He smirked, “Well for starters I’m not human.”

You cocked your head to the side and stared at him quizzically, “You look human.”

“I come from a planet called Asgard,” he pointed toward the sky. “Somewhere up there in the mess of a galaxy we live in.”

You looked to the sky and then back at the man, “Do all planets have beings that look human then?”

He moved closer and you backed away, but he merely sat down in front of you, “Not all planets, no, but some do. Asgard is one of those planets.” Suddenly there was light all around you and you twirled in a circle as you came to realize that whatever this was were different planets. “It’s an illusion,” the man’s voice said. “I can conjure them. This is the galaxy,” something shifted and this time you saw a closer view of a new planet that appeared to be flat, “and this is Asgard.”

You reached up to touch it, but your hand passed through the illusion, it faltered for a second before resuming its shape. Looking back at the man you said, “How do you get there?”

“A rainbow bridge,” he then showed it to you and you cooed at the different colors. “Beautiful isn’t it?”

You nodded your head, “Yes.”

The door to the room opened and you hid yourself some more, forgetting where you were and what you had been through. The woman named Wanda entered and was holding a tray of food. She offered you a smile, it was malicious or sinister like your captures had been. It was almost shy. “I brought some food, I figured you may be hungry.”

She sat it down at the edge of the pool and stepped away from it. Carefully you swam forward, keeping an eye on her, assessing her for danger. When you approached the tray you smelled fish and you hoisted yourself up to a seated position. You poked the fish with your finger and looked up at her, “What did you do to it?”

“Well I cooked it and put some lemon on it, and there’s some seaweed chips there if you’d like. We weren’t sure what you ate so we tried to stick with things that came from the ocean,” she explained.

“No, what did you do to it? Did you poison it, put drugs in it?” You frowned, you weren’t going to be tricked by this human.

Wanda seemed to realize what you meant and said, “Nothing, we didn’t put anything in it. Doctor Cho put some vitamins in there to help you regain your strength, but there’s nothing harmful.”

Poking the fish again with your finger you gently picked up a ‘seaweed chip’ and sniffed it. It smelled all right so you took a tentative bite out of it. Not the most appealing thing, but it was food. Picking the fish up next you ate hurriedly, this was the first good meal you had had in a while.

“Would you like more?” The man asked. You nodded your head and he stood, “I’ll get it, Wanda.”

“Thanks, Loki,” she responded with a smile. When he was gone she turned back to you. “The men that had you can’t hurt you anymore. We took care of them.” She watched as you pushed some of the bones from the fish around on your plate. “I know humans have given you no reason to trust us, but we’re not going to do anything to you. We’ll even let you go home.”

Your head perked up, “Home?”

Wanda nodded, “Tony and the others want you to regain your strength, but they said as soon as you’ve recovered we can take you back to wherever you came from.”

You thought of the ocean where you had grown up, the island that you and your group had lived off of. Then you became sad, Wanda saw your mood shift. “I have no home,” you whispered. “They took them all.”

Wanda’s hand covered her mouth for a second, her heart breaking for you. She knew what it was like to be alone in the world. “I’m so sorry. I know that may not mean much, but I know what it’s like to lose family. I’m alone with no home too.”

You looked back at the woman, saw the sincerity in her eyes, “Who were they?”

“They’re known as HYDRA. There’s a man here, his name is Bucky, he was captured and experimented on by them as well. They’re a group of bad humans that want to take over the world.”

You moved your tail up and down in the water watching as you brought it up and little rivers of water running off of it. “We’ve always feared humans,” you started saying. “People either killed us or used us for money. We thought we were safe, there were no humans around and then one day those men came.” Your eyes drifted up to the field beyond the glass walls of the enclosure. “They killed most of us, but took me and five others. Mermaids… we have families, but most of us form bonds with others when we’re old enough, go out on our own. I had to watch as my family suffered or were killed. Mermaids I had known for many years were abused, and now I’m the last one of my family.” Something wet hit your cheeks and you reached up to wipe whatever it was away.

“They’re called tears,” Wanda said softly and you curled your hand into a fist to hide the wetness.

“Before you came there was one more, my sister if you will, they dumped her onto the floor, injected her with some kind of serum and forced me to watch her writhe in pain. Forced me to witness her lying on that dirty floor as if she were some unwanted piece of trash.” You wrapped your arms around yourself, “I thought I would be next, but then you showed up and took me.”

The door to the enclosure opened once more and the man, Loki, stepped back in with more food. You murmured a thank you and ate a bit more slowly this time. Wanda stood and whispered something to Loki who nodded. She said goodnight and exited leaving you and Loki alone. “I’ll let you eat and rest in peace. Someone will be by in the morning with more food and Doctor Cho will probably come to see you and take your vitals.”

“All right,” you met his gaze. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” he said before he disappeared right before your eyes.

Loki didn’t lie, in the morning the blonde man from the place you had been held captive in came along with a very pretty woman. “Hello,” he said with a bright smile. You were in the center of the pool not sure if you wanted to wander closer, he held a tray of food and you wanted to get some, but were unsure of what he wanted. “My name is Steve and this is Doctor Cho, I believe Loki and Wanda told you about us last night.”

You nodded and slowly moved closer. Doctor Cho knelt beside the pool and said, “What’s your name?”

“Y/N,” you said.

Her smile was warm and inviting, “My name is Helen Cho, and I’m a doctor. I’m here to make sure that you become healthy again so we can send you back to wherever you came from.” She patted the surface beside her, “Do you mind sitting beside me?”

You pulled yourself up onto the side of the pool like you had done with Wanda the night before. “Are you gonna do anything that’ll hurt?”

“No,” Helen responded calmly. She pulled out something long and weird looking, you had never seen anything quite like it before. “This is a stethoscope, it’ll allow me to listen to what’s going on inside your body. But I’m not used to treating mermaids like yourself, so is there anything I should know beforehand?” You shook your head and she placed the stethoscope on your chest, it was cold which made you jump, and she murmured a sorry. When she was done she said, “Everything sounds okay, but I can tell where you’ve been malnourished. I’ve got a couple vitamins for you. I apologize now because I took a blood sample last night but I needed to know what the next steps in treating you should be. I have a few things that I want you to take, supplements that’ll help you in the healing process. They’ll be incorporated in your meals and I’ll check back daily to see how you’re doing.”

Instead of saying anything you nodded and she took her leave after that to go make some notes in your chart. Steve on the other hand stayed with you. “Wanda told me about what happened to you last night. I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that.”

“Why did you save me?” You met his blue eyes and could see sincerity and sadness there. “You knew nothing about me, what if I was dangerous?”

“You didn’t look dangerous, you looked scared,” Steve responded. “I’m not in the habit of leaving people behind.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” another voice spoke and you both looked up to see a brown haired man enter the room. One of his arms looked different, it wasn’t the same as Steve’s or Loki’s or even his right arm. “The name’s Bucky.”

“You were held by the people by me,” Wanda had told you about him last night.

“I thought that Buck would be able to help you some since he has some experience with these men,” Steve said. “I’ll give the two of you some privacy.”

Bucky waited until Steve was gone before he said, “Listen you don’t have to tell me anything, and you don’t have to talk. But I wanted you to know that if you ever need someone that has an understanding of what it’s like I’m here for you.”

The offer was nice and it did make you feel slightly better that there was someone here that understood the pain you had gone through. “Can… can I ask you something?”

“Sure go ahead,” he said.

You pointed to his arm that looked different, “What is different about that arm from everyone else?” 

Bucky held it out to you, “You can touch it if you like.” You hesitated, searching his face for any signs of being uncomfortable or trying to see if this was some kind of trap. In the end you hesitantly reached out and ran your fingers over the surface. It was smooth and cool to the touch and you looked back up at Bucky with wide eyes. He chuckled, “It’s made out of a metal called Vibranium. I lost my real arm many years ago fighting the people that took us hostage. Shuri made this for me, she’s this brilliant woman from a country called Wakanda.”

“And it acts as a real arm?”

“Yep,” he flexed his fingers and moved his arm as if he would his flesh one. “Technology is great for things like this.”

Bucky stayed with you for a little over an hour before he was called away for training of some sort. When you were alone you took the opportunity to swim around your new space. You were happy that it was spacious and that you had room to move around. It was already ten times better than the tank that these HYDRA people had put you in. And the people here seemed trustworthy enough, they hadn’t given you a reason not to trust them.

Your mind flashed to Loki and what he had done the night before with the… what had he called them? Illusions? 

Whatever they were you hadn’t seen anyone do anything like that before. You wondered if all Asgardians could do the tricks that he could. 

As if summoned by your thoughts he appeared by the edge of the pool. You shrunk down in the water some, not expecting him to just appear out of nowhere. “How was your visit with Sergeant Barnes?”

You swam closer to him, your tail slapping against the surface of the water lightly. “It was… informative?” You weren’t sure if that were the right word to use. “He was very kind and patient with me.”

Loki nodded his head and then he asked, “Do you mind if I join you?”

“In the pool?” You asked a bit startled.

He smirked, “Yes, in the pool. We used to use it for exercise, but Tony had it converted for your personal use.”

You felt slightly bad that you had taken up something that they used for daily activities. You moved away from the wall, “Go ahead.”

Loki removed his shirt and you saw the toned planes of his chest and abdomen and quickly glanced away before he could catch you staring. You had seen men shirtless plenty of times, all your mermen friends swam around shirtless, but Loki had you feeling differently. Before you could consider the line of thinking you had taken he jumped in and the water splashed against you slightly.

Ducking under the water you watched as he swam toward you and paused a few inches away. The two of you stared at one another for the longest time. Loki liked seeing you like this, seeing you in your natural state instead of above the waterline. He knew he couldn’t stay like this forever, he would need air at some point, but he just wanted to watch you for a little while longer.

He understood the stories of why sailors would drown when they came across mermaids. He was mesmerized by you.

You swam a bit closer to him and hesitantly reached for his hand. There was something you could do in order to let him breathe underwater, to let him stay in the water for as long as he wished. You motioned for him to follow you up knowing that he probably needed air. When the two of you broke the surface you said, “There’s a gift I can give you. I can let you breathe underwater for as long as you like.” His eyes lit up at the prospect. “But I need to kiss you….” You trailed off wondering how he would take the news. “I’ve never done this before, but it’s very well known by my people. I’ve seen it done before.” Loki was quiet and you grew worried, “You don’t have to.”

“No!” He said quickly. “I want to.” He moved closer so that the two of you were chest to chest. “This is not how I imagined our first kiss would go though.”

You blinked, “Wait, what?”

He smirked and brushed a finger against your cheek, his eyes trailing down to your lips and then back up to meet your gaze. “I’ve become infatuated with you, Y/N,” he admitted. “I laid awake the other night wondering what you were doing, if you were okay, were you sleeping well. I even wanted to come down here and spend time with you.”

“But… but why?” You weren’t sure why he would like you, the two of you hadn’t known one another long and you were two completely different species. “I’m not like you. I can’t leave this pool and I’ll need to return to the sea at some point. We’re doomed to fail.”

He rested his forehead against yours, “Darling, I’ve come back from the dead so many times at this point that nothing is impossible. Have faith that we’ll figure something out.”

A little thrill ran through you when he called you ‘darling’ and you wanted to believe that something could work out. That you could find a way out of this and be with him forever. Before any more concerns or worries could be voiced he closed the distance between you and him and sealed his confession with a kiss. Everything melted away and all that existed was you and him in the pool.

You held him close, running your fingers through his hair as he kissed you, his teeth lightly nipping at your lower lip. You weren’t sure how long the kiss lasted for, but you didn’t want it to end. You had never been kissed like this before and the feelings Loki ignited in you made you feel more alive than you ever had before.

Too soon the kiss ended and Loki was called away for a mission leaving you alone in the pool.

Weeks passed and Loki spent more time with you. The others came to visit with you as well. You liked Bucky the most besides Loki, seeing as how you and he had similar backgrounds with HYDRA. Steve and Wanda would be next on the list of people you enjoyed visiting with. Helen came to check on you periodically and one day she gave you the news you simultaneously looked forward to hearing and dreaded at the same time.

“You can go back to the sea,” she said with a bright smile, thinking that this news would thrill you. Instead she was met with a forlorn look, “Y/N, is something the matter?”

You hoisted yourself up onto the ledge of the pool and looked at Helen, “What if I don’t want to leave? What if I wish to remain here?”

She considered your words for a moment, “You need the open space of the ocean to thrive, Y/N. The pool isn’t near big enough for you to get the proper exercise that you need. And don’t you wish to find more mermaids and try to start over?”

Your mind flashed to Loki and you chewed on your lip, “I don’t know if they’ll accept me. Plus I’ve made so many friends here and I don’t want to leave them behind.”

Helen wasn’t sure what to say to that, but she told you to think things over and decide what you felt was best, but she highly urged you to go back to your home. Bucky appeared not too long after Helen left and he took in your sour mood. “What’s got your tail in a bunch?”

Normally his attempt at tail or mermaid humor was funny, but you weren’t feeling up to the humor today. “Doctor Cho said I could go home.”

“Hey that’s great!” He said, unsure of what the problem was.

“No it’s not!” You cried. “It means I have to leave you and the others… and Loki.”

Bucky suddenly realized what the problem was, “You love him, don’t you?”

“It’s silly isn’t it?” You questioned. “I haven’t known him for very long and yet I love him. We were doomed from the start.”

Bucky rested a hand on your shoulder, “It’s not silly, Y/N. It’s sweet and I know that this is hard, but maybe we can do something. Maybe Tony or Bruce or someone can come up with a serum to make you human.”

You looked at him, hope filling you, “Really?”

He nodded, “I’ll go talk to them and see what they say.” He playfully hit your chin and said, “Keep your chin up, we’ll figure something out.”

You didn’t tell Loki that Helen had given you the all clear to go home. You had made the others promise not to tell him anything either. You didn’t want to get his hopes up all for it to come crashing down around them.

Tony and Bruce worked tirelessly on a way to make you human. They went through files on the super soldier serum and began modifying them to work for their needs. Then they came to you and told you everything was ready. “There is a chance that you won’t live through this,” Bruce warned. “Are you sure it’s what you want?”

You nodded, “Yes.” They got you on a stretcher and led you to a lab where some of the others were waiting. They looked worried and you knew how serious this was. No one wanted to see this experiment fail. They got you into the machine and began prepping you just as the doors to the lab burst open. “Stop!”

Loki rushed to your side, but Bucky held him back. “It’s okay,” you told him. “I want this.”

Loki knew the dangers of this, he had heard what Steve had gone through, “Y/N, don’t risk yourself like this, please.”

Everyone waited to see what you would say, but you looked at Tony and said, “Start the procedure.”

The tube closed around you sealing you in and you could hear Loki shouting at them to stop this madness that this couldn’t possibly be what you wanted. Light began filling the tube and you closed your eyes against the brightness and winced as you started to feel pain throughout your body.

At one point you screamed and heard Loki demand that they stop, but they kept going. Soon enough it was over and you were still breathing, but you felt different. When the tube opened you stumbled out, someone catching you before you could fall to the ground. “Y/N,” Loki’s voice was there, his hand on your back trying to soothe you.

Your eyes were locked on where your tail had once been, but instead you found legs here. It had worked. “I’m human,” you said in hushed amazement. “I’m human!” You looked up at Loki, saw his eyes shining with unshed tears and kissed him. Holding him close, you didn’t have to leave anymore. You could stay.

“Come with us,” Tony said and Loki helped you walk through the halls of the Avengers compound for the first time. You took in the walls, some had pictures hanging from them others were bare. This is what your friends saw on a daily basis while you were trapped in the pool. Tony led you back to the pool and gestured toward it, “Get your feet wet.”

You sat down and dipped your feet into the pool, almost instantly your tail was back and you yelped. “What the hell?!”

It was Bruce that explained this to you, “We were able to sequence the serum so that when you have saltwater hit you, you’ll turn back into a mermaid. When your legs dry off then your legs will return.”

You pulled your tail from the water and Loki helped you dry it off and soon the legs returned. You got up and hugged Tony and Bruce unsure of how to properly thank them for the gift that they had given you.

The team took you under their wings and helped train you. It took a while to get used to walking and then running, but you were soon doing it with expert ease. Loki helped you learn how to defend yourself and the two of you were constantly together. Tony had offered to give you your own room, but you stayed with Loki. You didn’t want to leave his side.

Months turned into years and you still managed to find happiness with the Avengers, even helping them with missions that involved water. You had lost your family, but you had also found one, and while you sometimes missed your fellow mermaids nothing could ever pry you away from the Avengers or Loki.


End file.
